Social Research in the Digital Age, interview with Matthew Salganik

On March 25th, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice had the pleasure of hosting a talk by Matthew Salganik, Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, within the EcSeminars series of lectures, organized by the Department of Economics. Professor Salganik spoke of how the digital age has transformed the ways in which researchers can study social behavior and which new opportunities have arisen from the combination of social science and data science.

What has emerged from the study of big data on mass behavior? Could you point out any current trends? 

Big data has changed the way that we understand some old research questions, and it has created entirely new research questions for us to investigate.  For example, Hank Farber, an economist at Princeton has used digital records from taxis to study how many hours people choose to work as their wages change .  This kind of research question is very old, but the big data sources allowed Prof. Farber to understand this question in a new way. 
Big data sources also create entirely new research questions.  For example, many researchers are now trying to understand how social media platforms have contributed to the spread of misinformation.  

One important trend that I see is more collaboration between researchers, companies, and governments.  Many of the most valuable data sources are now held by companies and governments, and many researchers have ideas that can help everyone learn more from these data sources.  This creates important opportunities for collaboration that can help advance science and can also help society by leading to better social programs and more innovative companies.

In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of the digital age, especially for researchers? Are there any new possibilities and/or new challenges?

I think that the digital age brings many exciting possibilities for researchers.  We can now measure much more about social behavior, in ways to that are more accurate, cheaper, and faster.  Basically, we can do things that no researcher has ever been able to do before.  However, these new possibilities do not mean that we should ignore the way that social scientists have studied behavior in the past.  Rather, we should modernize these traditional approaches. 

The biggest dangers that I see in digital age social research are ethical.  Now, we can observe the behavior of millions of people without their consent or awareness and we can enroll them in massive experiments, again without their consent or awarenesses.  Researchers now have more power than ever before, and we need to develop approaches that help us ensure that we exercise this power in a responsible way.  

Your latest book "Bit by bit: social research in the Digital Age" will soon be published in Italian. Who is this book for? What topics do you cover?

"Bit by Bit: Social Research in the Digital Age" is for social scientists who want to do more data science, data scientists who want to do more social science, and anyone interested in the combination of these two fields.  It is for students and professors at universities, and it is also for researchers at companies and governments who want to do and understand social research using big data and digital sources. 

The book is organized around four different research designs: observing behavior, doing surveys, running experiments, and organizing mass collaboration.  These research designs have all been used by social researchers before and they will all be used in the future.  But, the way that researchers use these designs can be transformed and improved because of the capabilities of the digital age.  I also have an entire chapter about ethics.  There are many new ethical questions created by big data and massive experimentation, and I think that researchers—whether they are universities, companies, or governments—should think carefully about we should use our new capabilities.  

"Bit by Bit" is being translated into Italian, and it will be published by il Mulino.  An excerpt of the Italian edition has already been published and people can learn more about "Bit by Bit" at http://www.bitbybitbook.com